Page 46 of Prince of Night and Storm
“Come, Aerinne, you wished to engage me.” Silk warms the ice of his voice. “Engage me or bow. Or I will punish you for wasting time best put to. . .other uses.”
“You own endless amounts of it to waste.” I bare my teeth. “I won’t bend the knee, Prince. Unless you break it first.”
“A pretty offer, Malisse ni. Let us negotiate then.”
I pull on my Skill, invisible once more. But with every strike he anticipates my movements.
Panting, I wink back into sight. We'd begun the battle well past afternoon, and now the sun is beginning to cast streaks of pink and orange and purple.
“Out of curiosity, how are you able to fight me when you can't see me?”
Dark brows compress in a brief line, the most emotion he's displayed today.
“Sight is the least reliable sense, girl. Your training is deplorably basic for the daughter of a High Lord. Though I'll admit your potential is pleasing.”
“Why should you be pleased?”
His answer is to attack, but this time he pulls off his metaphorical glove. Only an inch—that is enough.
The weight of his power warns me he's capable of so much more.
He moves fast, his movements spare, wasting no energy, and I back away, shifting into defense as I give ground. He presses me to elicit the response he wants, without pulling his blows,none of them fatal—but each of them a lesson in pain. I suffer from a half dozen minor injuries as he methodically beats me into the ground.
My head snaps back as the hilt of his sword crashes against my jaw.
“More?” he inquires, as if offering me a second cup of tea.
I taste blood in my mouth and spit it out after a second. “Chivalry is dead.”?5
His eyes glow, the blue finally swirling to life. “I beg your pardon. I did not realize it was chivalry you wanted from me.”
The Prince stalks forward, skirting the distance I've been trying to inch between us. I need a few moments to recoup, but he refuses.
“Take my offer, Aerinne.”
There is nothing remote about his voice now.
Spilling my blood rouses the shadow beast, and the great black wings unfurl.
1 “Cursed by the Dark” / “By the Dark, we are cursed” (like saying “goddamnit”) Spoken in this context, etlehar loses urgency but none of the viciousness.
2 My Princess. Now, it's a basic phrase, and one might think Aerinne knows it. But they don't have Princes and Princesses in their culture. Renaud made that shit up cause it sounded good. The title High Lord is the highest title you can have in their culture. How high the ‘High’ is communicated through context and inflection.
3 Roughly means “though it is not as great as the folly of my affection for you.” The context is that both the affection and the folly are greater, and because of said affection she can get away with pulling a lot of shit, she’s going to cause him a lot of trouble, and he's resigned to both, but also on his guard.
4 “She will come to be your downfall.” The context is, ‘you know better than this’ and ‘are you sure you wanna go out like this’ and ‘please stop saying this stupid shit in public where people can hear you.’ It's also a mild warning to get his woman under control now to prevent said downfall. From the inflection of Renaud’s comment and Baroun’s reply, they’ve discussed this before. Baroun’s reply is rather familiar too, but respectful, which leads us to believe he has a close familial relationship with Renaud and looks up to him, or did at one point.
5 Scribe feels the need to mention Aerinne’s human side is showing itself. Chivalry is not an Adalessikai concept. It is wise to mind one’s manners when interacting with any person of power, regardless of gender or sex, and honor is subjective. If additional courtesy is extended to an individual of weaker anything due to particular circumstances or their relationship to oneself, that is a private matter.
Chapter
Fifteen
RELEASE THE WYVERNS
O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
